Mass. transgender inmate seeking electrolysis

BOSTON -- A transgender inmate who won a court order for taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery has no medical need for further electrolysis treatments, a prisons department psychiatrist testified Monday.

Dr. Robert Diener testified during a hearing in U.S. District Court on Michelle Kosilek's request to have additional hair-removal treatments. Diener, chief psychiatrist for the state Department of Correction, said he evaluated Kosilek in 2010 and again last month and concluded that Kosilek's anxiety level hasn't changed, even though she hasn't had electrolysis treatments since 2008.

"I continue to believe that it's not medically necessary for this patient," said Diener, chief psychiatrist at MHM Services Inc., a company subcontracted by the state Department of Correction to provide mental health services.

Under questioning by Kosilek's lawyer, Diener acknowledged that he had not published any articles or conducted any research on gender-identity disorder, a diagnosis given to Kosilek. Diener also said he was told that the reason prison officials stopped giving Kosilek electrolysis after seven treatments is because it was too expensive.

Kosilek's lawyer, Frances Cohen, said prison officials' refusal to allow Kosilek to have additional treatments is "simply another incident of deliberate indifference" to Kosilek's medical needs.